BuckeyeZ06

Hey all,

I want to share with you some experiences I've had with keeping the driver, in this case me, cool in a race car.

Some background: I race in the Trans Am Series. I currently drive a C7Corvette bodied tube-frame beast. It gots HOT in that car. At the last race, after only 4 laps in qualifying, I asked my crew to point the tire pyrometer on the transmission tunnel and the inside passenger door panel (which has the exhaust on the other side). The trans tunnel showed 144 degrees and the door panel over 150. After only four laps...so it gets hot inside these cars.

At Road Atlanta I lost all will to compete with about 5 laps to go. We raced the entire 100 miles without a caution period and as such I was exhausted towards the end. I was holding on for Dear Life! If you watch the TV broadcast Simon Gregg and I are dicing for 5th place with one lap to go, and while you can't see it, I have no will to race him. He got me on that lap.

When I parked the car in the pits, I had to be pulled from the car. I could not move under my own power. The crew threw me on the golf cart and took me to my toterhomw where they stripped me and placed cold wet towels over my body and filled me up with water and Gatorade. About 90 minutes later I was barely OK.

At New Jersey the same thing happened, but the Safety Crew saw me and took me to Medical. My pulse was way low as was my blood pressure. They pumped two liters of IV fluids in me.

This is serious stuff. My wife told me if this repeats I am done racing...

So, what to do?

Before we got this "fixed," we tried all sorts of combinations to keep me cool, some were only "ok." Some failed miserably. The final solution consists of a Cool Suit Pro system with the helmet blower, and helmet skirt (to keep hot air out), a drink bottle with a 50/50 Gatorade/cold water mix, and roof vents to allow air to escape the cockpit.

We did extend one of the Cool Suit return lines away from the outlet line, this keeps the water going to my body from getting heated by the incoming water coming from me. Also, the cooler was wrapped with the gold heat barrier sheets.

The inner body panels were all covered with the heat barriers as well.

Some of this stuff you can't, or don't want, to do in your car. But there are things that you can, and should, do. Your performance will suffer whether you realize it or not. Even if you are "only" doing HPDE, the longer runs you will loose some of your sharpness...this could have disatrous affects!

I estimate that I have finished at least three spots further back in the field in the two races I was the hottest; that's 1/3 of the races this season. When your fighting for season points, these positions, points and issues add up.

There are portable systems you can use if you don't want to permanently mount something to you car...like if you are doing HPDE events.

Keep yourself cool, you will be glad you did.

StreetSpeed

I'm confused - the moral of the story is you're now cool while using all the cooling gear or you're still over heating even with all the cooling gear? I would have assumed you wouldn't have tried racing this beast without some pretty extensive cooling measures from the start.

Also, are you a pretty fit guy? I'm no pro-racer but every pro-racer that talks about conditioning mentions it's important to be fit to deal with the super high temps in the car.

BuckeyeZ06

Sorry for the confusion. Yes, I am now cool.

The last race was July 4th at Brainerd and the systems we put in place made a huge difference. I guess I should have mentioned that important fact...LOL.

It was a bunch of small things, like making sure water lines didn't kink closed, to the vents in the roof, but the biggest surprise to me was the drink bottle that I was able to use during Ful Course Yellows.

Am I in shape? Well, kinda,,,at 53 (this weekend) I can still pass the Army PT test...for a 30 year old. NO, I never served, but I use that as a measure.

I run and lift weights almost every day. A week before each race I load up on water...about 150-200 ounces at water per day.

63Corvette

Thank you Buckeye. Your points are well taken

BuckeyeZ06

At New Jersey we had some guys who race predominantly Club events, which are 45 miles in length, versus our 100.

These guys, from what I recall, don't normally have a problem with heat in tgeir Club races, but at 100 miles they were spent. Heat is present, even if you feel ok at the end of a session. Use done type of driver cooling system to keep your mental edge.

CHJ In Virginia

Very valid point - driver must stay cool to perform at top efficiency. I ran mostly southern tracks where it could get to 105 deg ambient on a July / August day. I was damn near dead after a 30 minute session, especially wearing a fire suit. If I had continued a coolshirt and accssys was my next purchase.

fatbillybob

How does the helmet blower work? I use cool suit on cold february days in cali. I will add some kind of helmet blower. I was thinking about putting a tranny cooler in my cool tank. Then force outside air through the cooler and into my helmet. It would be like having A/C.

What did you find best to insulate the transmission tunnel area?

BuckeyeZ06

We use the gold foil insulation...how well it works is debatable, but I don't think there's juch that can be done.

The helmet blower is a Cool Suit Pro system, so it take air routed to it from a NACA duct into the blower, through the cooler, which cools the air, and into the helmet. I have two helmets, one Simpson and the other a Stilo. The Stilo has both a top and a side air port. The top works best, but I have some interferance with the roll bar, so I've used both helmets with the side port. It's good, but not as good as from the top.

The helmet skirt made a big difference. Combine it with keeping the visor shut and your head stays cool, and that's big for staying focused.

Then we drilled a hole for a drink tube, and that surprised me how much that helped. The water jug is mounted behind the bulkhead so it stays cool longer.

Funny thing is that last year, when I have the C6 body, I didn't suffer any of these problems. I raced for two seasons and didn't use a helmet blower or cool suit. But with the C7 body, the aero doesn't allow air into the cockpit, which is good for performance, but bad for the driver.

But now since I was forced to address this, I've found that I am sharper at the end of races even though the inside of the car is hotter than last. Keeping cool, both your head and your body, is very important.

rfn026

Air conditioning. You're required to have a/c at LeMans.

What was interesting was the the cars got faster with a/c because of the windows being up.

The FIA actually monitors the inside temps.

The drivers love it. You might want to check around and find out what they're using. I'm sure Pratt and Miller would be happy to install a system in your car.

Richard Newton
Gauge Accuracy and Reliabilty

redtopz

Good info! Does Trans Am have side windows (closed cockpit) or open windows? I've found having a NACA duct blowing on my neck/chest makes a huge difference in keeping me cool. I didn't realize how much until it broke and I ran a weekend without it. I can see how having some water would make a huge difference in longer races. I've done the 25 hour race a couple times with stints up to 4 hours long with no water or cooling, but it's 30-50 degrees outside. It's amazing how much the heat can hurt driver performance.

Mjolitor 68

It's a serious issue in the DP, racing in FL summer is pretty crazy

At. Sebring must have been easily 110F in cockpit & that's before race suit & helmet. Team got me a vest from an Apache gunship that works better than my old cool suits. My helmet cooler sucked so we have a new top shelf NASCAR unit coming. I'll try out a helmet skirt next race too.

Crew Chief told me he installed a little fan on roof under vent to suck heat out & gold foil on bulkhead to reflect heat back

I'll try the drink tube too

BuckeyeZ06

I bought one of those fancy NASCAR Collins systems and didn't like it. It was an air-to-air heat exchanger, cooling the in-bound air by 25 degrees. To me not enough.

In TA our windows are open, but we are permitted a NACA duct.

BuckeyeZ06

I started this thread to increase awareness of the subject. Even in HPDE a sessions in a street car, the driver is going too get hot if ACA isn't on. Use a gel pack vest if you don't want to mount a cooler and run lines, but do something. You ARE losing some driving performance.

I used to be a quasi tough guy, "I don't need no stinking Cool Suit." Ha! How wrong I was. Not using one has cost me positions at the end of the race. Lesson learned.

parkerracing

I suffered a bad dose of heat exhaustion at Moroso. One trick I learned is to put your left hand up to about mid forearm in a cooler of ice. It works like any heat exchanger. This is the last outbound stop for your circulation system before heading back to the heart. This can cool your core faster than about any other method I know of (A/C in the motorhome or cool towels only wick away heat from the skin).

Captain Buddha

I run a cool shirt and helmet blower in my GTA car. There have been a few times where there has been a malfunction...talk about misery...especially when it is 100 ambient with 130-140 in the car...shake n bake!!! We use a combination of water, ice and a frozen gallon jug in the cooler. This gets rotated out as needed.

fatbillybob

I tried gel packs before I bought cool shirt. They claim to be great for core cooling by not overcooling the skin blah blah blah. Gel packs don't work. The cool shirt works.

There are really expensive drivers suits that meet FIA SFI regs for SCCA etal that are very light and breathable but at 3 times the cost of the more generic cheaper models in a line. Sparco and OMP make some light weights.

A/C won't work in our cars very well because most of us are required to run windows down. And our fire suits are like wearing a jacket. They insulate us from the A/C. So we need to get cold on the inside and hence the cool suit.

There is a cool shirt with tubes for the head keeps head cool but messes with helmet fit. To avoid those issues and increase convenience by the end of the year TMI Racing Products @ VIR said they would be the 1st to import an Snell approved helmet with built in cool shirt style plumbing. It will have a set of "'T's" that will splice into existing cool suit plumbing. It is an obvious direction for helmets but no one has done it yet.

BuckeyeZ06

The gel back vests don't last very long, this is true, but if you don't want to install a plumbed system, it's better than nothing.

Captain Buddha

I modified my ***** to go to "11"...LOL